“And that’s the news of the highway monster truck disaster near Philadelphia. Motor Ed is still at large and was last seen with his remaining monster trucks and what appear to be… seriously? Anyway he escaped with what appear to be several, can’t believe I’m saying this, sumo ninjas on motorcycles.” The reporter signed off most likely in disbelief and Foxglove gave a sigh that no one died in that mess. Some minor severe injuries, but they still very much alive after having their monster trucks totaled.
“Well that’s good news; I would have been upset if anybody had gotten badly hurt by us.” Looking on the positive side of things was Fluttershy, even if the ones who weren’t captured could attack her and her friends again at a later date.
“You caused all that?” Connie asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, you’d be surprised at what you can accomplish when under attack. By the way most of that was was Fluttershy’s doing, especially the sawing several monster trucks in half bit.” It didn’t bother Bonnie all that much; she enjoyed evading danger.
“I’m not very proud of doing all of that Bonnie; it was really nice of those policemen to have ambulance carriages on standby.” Fluttershy took her gaze off the television which was a quick news delivery source and she turned it to Connie. “When is Mr. Universe going to be here?”
Connie hadn’t exactly told Greg or Steven what the good news was yet, just that she needed to be picked up so that she could share it over some pizza. What she wasn’t telling them was that someone else was buying the pizza; Bonnie is footing the bill since she had the money.
“It’ll be a while, until then let’s talk about what kind of pizza we’ll be getting.” Connie had broken a small rule when it came to pizza, never give anyone else a chance to voice their own toppings or else you’ll be dragged into argument about what tasted best. At least an argument luckily didn’t break out this time. “I’m thinking of going with the classic pepperoni.”
“Pineapple on pizza is the way to go for me and I’m pretty sure the little squirt would love a fruit covered pizza.” At least Bonnie wasn’t thinking of only of herself, she did have a small soft spot for pizza as she remembered her first meal with her brother fondly and she’d always be capable of sharing the wealth she had recently come into. She had five mouths to feed after all and the freshly stolen money had an immediate use for good cause.
Roller had no idea what pizza was and suggested something incredibly bizarre to put on it that he considered edible. Fluttershy didn’t bother translating Roller’s extreme omnivore tendencies, it was better to just stay silent about what he had said.
“I like spinach, gorgonzola and walnuts personally.” This earned Foxglove a few odd stares. “I can eat other things than besides insects or fruit you know, magic helps me digest things that would normally be unsafe for me to eat. Just don’t bring up how weird it is when I’m eating the pizza and I won’t get indigestion thinking too much about it being impossible.”
“Spinach I can maybe understand if slightly, but walnuts?” Connie had never heard of such an odd combination.
“I’m friends with a rather handsome chipmunk and I like trying new things sometimes. I found that I really enjoy it.” It actually tasted good to her at least; sometimes Foxglove thought she was spoiling herself way to much when she spends time with the Rescue Rangers.
“That’s no weirder than having anchovies or sardines at a griffon pizzeria on my home planet, this planet has so many things in common with mine and I’m wondering if they are available.” Fluttershy received stares from Connie and Foxglove.
“So the ponies of your world are meat eaters?” Hey, Connie had to be sure and the question was awkward enough to ask of someone who wasn’t able to properly get upset that it was. “I kind of thought that your species would be mostly vegan in nature because eating meat would be un healthy for you.”
“No eating meat definitely makes ponies sick; with the exception that pegasi can digest and handle most forms of seafood. The pegasi as a race used to live by the sea before we took to living in the clouds and seafood was always edible to us as much as any pony with a bit of pegasus ancestry, but all ponies also tend to eat eggs and drink milk.” Eventually Fluttershy would have to make a pamphlet about ponies given how many times she’s had to explain her home planet to so many people. “So no, ponies on my planet aren’t true vegans, though we do eat a lot of vegetables and fruits as our main source of food.”
“To answer your question anchovies and sardines do exist on earth, I assure you it’s likely an acquired taste here as it is probably back home for you.” Because most animals where Foxglove lived were mostly vegetarian and there was very few times when meat eaters would cause problems. As long as humans were around the meat eating animals didn’t have to worry about finding food and she had tried other foods at least once a week.
The discussion went on from there while Soft Echo snuggled into Bonnie’s side to get her ears rubbed for being adorable. Connie was learning about all the magical animals Earth had from Foxglove, compared to all the whimsical animals Equus had from Fluttershy. She was mystified to learn of the different beings on each planet, with things like tooth fairy’s actually existing among many other fantastical creatures was a bit hard to swallow in its entirety. She even learned that unicorns were real, but unicorns on Earth sounded boring in comparison to the unicorn ponies from Equus.
“Timber Wolves are actually made out of wood on your world? That’s kind of silly from my perspective.” It had been a rather interesting discussion of planetary differences when a knock on the door was heard.
“Connie, it’s me Greg!” it sounded like an adult male and everyone followed Connie to the door, waiting a second for Fluttershy to get Soft Echo onto her back to carry her along.
“Guys stay out of sight for a bit, I don’t want to surprise him too hard until I introduce you to him.” Seeing that they did as she asked Connie opened the door and saw Steven’s old man standing at the door with his van sitting on the road in park. “Hello Mr. Universe, is Steven still moping?”
“Yeah, poor little guy is still very upset that Pearl is gone and just hasn’t been the same ever since then. I’ve been trying to do a lot of things to cheer him up, but he won’t stay happy for very long.” Greg Universe just sighed in defeat that he couldn’t help his son out, it was hurting him as a father that he couldn’t make his son happy by somehow magically clapping his hands and bringing Pearl back from whatever had happened to her.
“You know that good news I have to tell you and Steven? I was wondering if you have enough room in your van for a few friends of mine who have never been to Beach City before, this good news relates to their arrival.” Trying to ease him into this Connie kept herself from looking back to the living room where her new friends were out of sight. “This will really cheer up Steven to hear, I just know it will. It’s just that my friends are a little… odd.”
“Well if you think they can do something to help Steven then I’m okay with it.” Having seen the many things in his life Greg was prepared for some crystal gems to come out, instead Connie walked away and came back with the strangest menagerie of creatures he had ever seen.
“Hello.” At one time Foxglove might have been shy, after meeting Dale the shyness was thoroughly thrown clear out the nearest window or through a wall if a window wasn’t available in her mind at the time she threw the shyness out. She was offering herself up as the first to speak again voluntarily.
“Hello, I’m Greg Universe. Is this a crystal gem thing that I should be worried about Connie?” After a moment of silently looking over the group Greg didn’t see any gems among them, that didn’t mean they weren’t somehow related in some way if Connie’s unheard news was anything to go by. Because short of Pearl being alive and returning he didn’t think anything like this batch of weirdness would cheer Steven up, not that watching his favorite show Crying Breakfast Friends helped his moody disposition any.
“No Mr. U, they have important news though and I want them to tell Steven what they personally told me.” After that Connie pointed out each of them to Greg. “That’s Foxglove, Roller Wheel, Fluttershy; Bonnie who has a name almost like mine and the little one is Soft Echo.”
Soft Echo sat up and looked at the big man in the shirt and cut off shorts with her big purple eyes and she squeaked at him while flapping her wings somewhat. Greg looked to Fluttershy who nodded her assent and he picked her up and started to tickle the little darling creature with bat features that started giggling happily.
“Aw look at her, she’s really adorable. Is this your daughter ma’am?” Greg received a nod from the rather calm feminine creature; he had wondered why a mother would just let him pick up her child like this. Obviously Fluttershy wasn’t going to go mama bear on Greg because he didn’t come off as very threatening, that and her current emotional disposition.
“So to the van to get some pizza so they can finally deliver the news to you and Steven?” Receiving a suspicious look from the older man Connie smiled cheekily as she had yet to tell him what the news was.
“Alright, come on.” At this point Greg really didn’t care if they were crystal gem business or not, he liked them well enough and Connie obviously trusted them. Roller puttered right on by Greg who flinched slightly, he still wasn’t into overly magical things.
-
Greg had it explained to him what each being was, Foxglove was the one he was still unsure if she was a normal bat or not because she was as magically gifted like his son was with his mothers powers.
“So what brings all of you to Beach City?” He looked up in the review mirror and glanced at the various beings in the back of his van.
“Oh this is just a little detour for friends on the quest to restore my brother back to life.” Bonnie really wasn’t paying attention to the large balding bearded man with long hair hanging down his back. She was staring at the sphere that contained her brother, the death knells encroachment hadn’t moved once since Stanley put it in magical stasis and she was still rather worried it would wear off at any time.
“Why are we being so secretive about it?” The ever emotionless Fluttershy didn’t understand the reasoning behind keeping it all secret that they were here to deliver a message that Pearl was okay. That Pearl was likely watching them at the moment since she was hanging out with Discord earlier was something Fluttershy should probably get back into asking about. She wondered blankly if her friends had seen Soft Echo yet, the little pink furred pony seemed to be normal except for the fact that she spoke in a dialect of vampire fruit bat that would make her hard for ponies to understand her in the future. She’ll likely give Soft her translation device when they get to Equus and it was an almost guaranteed certainty that they would.
“It’s because I want it to be a big surprise for when we finally tell Steven about what you told me!” If there was one person Connie really liked it was Steven Universe, he was quirky, funny, friendly and obviously gifted in reading other people in an emotional manner. Steven was her biscuit and she liked to be his jam, they cad even share a body when they magically fused together. She knew how he felt about her and hadn’t brought it up once since it would embarrass him. If every pork chop were perfect then there wouldn’t be any hotdogs like Steven around, a short guy who is perfect by just being himself.
“Speaking of surprises, know of a place where we can stop for some dessert to go with our pizza?” Bonnie was asking because she wanted something of the sweet and sugary variety, she tended to have a sweet tooth and nothing was sweeter than being around Fluttershy when she was fully emotional.
“Yeah there’s a place near Fish Stew Pizza that Steven frequents all the time, Big Doughnut is one of his favorite places to go here in Beach City. We can pick up some stuff from there as Steven will actually have something to celebrate soon.” If there was excitement in the air then Connie had certainly spread it to Greg.
“Hey yeah, I guess we’re making a party of it then… no wait… how am I going to pay for all this?” Despite the fact that he was a decent musician once upon a time, Greg didn’t have a lot of money to his name since he became a car washer who did odd jobs on the side to keep himself afloat.
“Leave that and the pizza to me, I can pay for it all myself. What kind of doughnuts can you handle, if you have any allergies it’s a good idea to mention it now since I’m getting a lot of fruit filled ones for the filly.” Bonnie had a soft spot now the cute little tyke that was mewling as her stomach grumbled, she watched as Fluttershy quieted the kid by taking her into her hooves and rocking her gently. It was pretty awesome to see Fluttershy in action of being a mother despite lacking the emotional value behind it other than happiness. The little kid could really eat a lot, most likely because she was born with hollow leg and an empty stomach.
“Really how are you going to do that? I mean you’re a little noticeable.” Keeping his eyes on the road, Greg saw that they were almost at the car wash place where he worked. That’s where he was going to park to go get Steven while Connie showed the friendly, if strange, visitors around.
“I’m noticeable sure, but I’m also legally an American citizen.” The statement that Bonnie spoke noticeably caught the attention of Connie, Foxglove and Greg.
“How does that work?” He might not have known the green furred creature for long, but even Greg was a bit skeptical that she was an American citizen.
“Quite well obviously, since I was not human I didn’t normally fall under human laws so my stealing stuff in after little harmless crime spree in Hawaii. Legally, they couldn’t deport me to another country or hold me up to their laws. That’s where things got rather interesting.” It certainly was a crazy bit of law work, but the only way they could legally put her in jail under their laws was to make her a citizen of America which she had readily agreed to for various reasons. One being it made her entire family American citizens protected by law. “Since the first country I landed on when I came to earth was considered me being on American soil, it became my country of origin. They had to make me a citizen of America or else I would walk away scot free to plunder and pillage what was my little black heart out at the time without repercussion because I’m not native to any other country and they don’t have protocols for alien beings. My brother loved the jail time there when usually we hate jail, the jail in Hawaii was much nicer than being stuff into a small cubic room surrounded by force fields only being fed what passed for barely nutritional slop every day. It wasn’t all bad, except the fact they couldn’t legally put me down as female because I’m not human and thus I was in a prison for guys for a while. My brother made sure nobody would even dare touch me without my say so. Nobody tried to really and I did my time, I still wonder why nobody wanted me and it made me feel as if I were ugly. Anyway, I got out early for good behavior and because a bail was paid by my family. I’m not sure whether they’ll ever figure out my youngest brother Stitch hacked a bank account to pay my bail or not, but I’m not complaining.”
“So you’re an alien who’s also a criminal.” Greg didn’t sound particularly happy with knowing that he had a criminal in his van, he rubbed the side of his head in slight consternation that Connie trusted her so easily.
“I have no current arrest warrants out for me on Earth or in space. At least not to my knowledge at the moment anyway, Fluttershy quite legally paid my bail in space a while ago and I’ve been relatively clean ever since then.” Despite the fact that her fingers were stickier then someone wearing a glove covered in super glue, at least Bonnie was able to cut back on her urges by doing minor seemingly illegal things like breaking and entering without the breaking or stealing part.
“She’s also saved a lot of people from some horrible things and took down an evil empire almost entirely by herself. She’s not really evil, just misunderstood most of the time because she can’t help how she was made to be.” It was moments like this with Fluttershy speaking up for her, if still in a rather flat manner, that made Bonnie happy that she had decided kidnap the beautiful pony despite the headaches involved in doing so. It was easily the best theft she had ever committed and it never ceased to make her happy to have met Fluttershy, a friend unlike any other.
“Yeah, I guess I can understand that, if the crystal gems who live here in Beach City weren’t rebels against their own kind in the distant past then this planet wouldn’t likely be here today.” At least Greg wouldn’t get upset with Bonnie unless she did something he didn’t agree with under his watch and she seemed amiable enough to get along with. She reminded him of Amethyst in some ways. He pondered on the fact that she was promising to pay for pizza and baked goods. This brought up a thought to mind that he just had to voice. “Where did you get the money from?”
“I’ll be honest here; would you care if I stole it from criminals after they shot at me and my friends without provocation? They were human thieves that wouldn’t care that they actively hurt people to get what they want, I don’t try to hurt someone unless they’ve either thoroughly upset me in some way or if they’ve made me completely furious.” The resentment in her voice was halted when Bonnie felt Fluttershy slowly rub her back with a hoof displaying little emotion whatsoever; it still made her feel better. “While I haven’t made a lot of good decisions in my life, I think everything is going pretty well nowadays since I met Sweet Cheeks here.”
“You said something about restoring you’re brother to life… how’s that going.” Glancing in the mirror again, Greg could see Bonnie holding a small sphere that had a white glow around it. He didn’t say much more as he could see the grief etched into her face as she looked down at the little sphere that looked to be plastic, it looked like a gem but it wasn’t one obviously. “I’m sorry about bringing it up.”
“No, it’s okay big guy. My little brother will be better once I can get him back to dad, my dad can still restore him back to normal as long as this sphere doesn’t go entirely gray.” Bonnie held the sphere close to her chest and it was on her person every single moment. The only other person she would trust with it would be Fluttershy and she’s not emotionally up to the task at the moment. She didn’t want Foxglove around it because she might accidentally break the stasis on it early dooming her brother, Roller’s adaptive magic might be capable of an accident too and at least Fluttershy’s magic tended to be centered entirely around a specific concept so it was impossible for her which is why Foxglove came along for the ride.
“Well here we are. This is where I work; Connie will take you to the Big Doughnut to get the goods. I’ll meet you at Fish Stew Pizza with Steven.” Greg let the strange beings pile out of his van and he decided to walk to the home that was built underneath the statue on the beach. “Look, whatever news you have for him better be the greatest most fantastical thing he’ll ever hear, I just want to see my little man smiling and happy again.”
“Okay guys, come on and I’ll show you the place where Steven likes to hang out.” The odd menagerie set out with Connie in the lead taking them to a place with a large sign with Big Donut written on it.
The written language was not something Fluttershy understood. It was unlikely that Soft Echo toddling along beside her could either, but the symbolism of the doughnut on the roof of the place was definitely understandable. The place itself seemed kind of quaint in size and appearance compared to the big symbol on top of the building.
“Hey Sadie, you’re getting some strange customers today, I hope you don’t mind.” Strange being that Connie didn’t usually come in to snack on the delicious looking treats.
The blonde woman at the counter looked up from her magazine and smiled at Connie and then blinked a few times at what followed her in.
“Of course I don’t mind, welcome to the Big Doughnut! We have all kinds of stuff for sale so have a look around.” It didn’t matter what they looked like, customers were customers and she’d be happy to serve the green koala, an intelligent looking bat and the really odd self propelled motorized unicycle thing. When her eyes fell on the two little horse beings with wings, she felt her heart melt at the sight of Fluttershy cheerfully nuzzling Soft in a comforting gesture at being in a strange place. “At least it’s not a pink lion. Hey Lars, come get a look at this, they’re adorable!”